Gather the pitchforks and torches, we goin after a Storm!

[HawgDawg4life]

No, we are not hunting down one of our beloved members, but rather tossing around the idea of creating a Storm Chasers Group, called "MSF Storm Chasers".

So if the weather report gets your heart pumpin' or the thought of strata clouds gathering makes those little hairs stand up on the back of your neck, then this group is for you!

The big idea:
The idea is to form a group of storm chasers who take regularly scheduled flights into bad weather. This will be a closed group, in that these flights will not be open to everyone, but only to members of the group. Why you ask? Since Jeppsen is no longer reliable or timely, we need a reliable medium in which to receive our weather. Rex Essentials is the solution. So yes, if you wanted to join the storm chasers, you would have to have Rex Essentials. Rex Essentials is a Payware application. Not everyone has Rex and we don't want our storm chasing flights to be about explaining Rex and grabbing "links" for people.

I wanted to create 3 sub-groups within the Storm Chaser Posse: The first group will fly above the storm, the second group will head into the storm, and the third group would fly below the storm. All of these groups would be responsible for gathering photo's of the storm from their group's perspective.

I thought about calling the first group "Over-watchers", the second group "Belly-Jocks", and the third group "Bird-Dogs".

We would meet on the night in question with no idea of where we will be flying. We will then find a storm in which to chase using some platform like weather.com. We will then find an appropriate airport near the storm and fire up our REX for real world weather. "Bird-Dogs" to depart first, then "Over-Watchers" and finally the "Belly-Jocks"

I am entertaining ideas for weather radar systems like plan-G or something similar, but Rex comes with one as well. I don't have all the details worked out yet so I wanted to kick out this forum post to start gathering interests and members. We will not be limiting the spots and you will be able to fly in which ever group you want so long as you fly in an appropriate aircraft, which has yet to be determined......

Let me know if your interested.

[HawgDawg4life]

Okay, Here are some thoughts for Aircraft.......

Over-Watchers: 4 Choices - P-3c Orion "Hurricane Hunter" downloadable Here, Captain-Sim C-130(Payware), E-1B Tracer (downloadable Here), and the E-3C AWACS

Belly-Jocks: 3 Choices: Cera Simulations Blackhawk (Payware), Gruman Goose (Default) S-3B Viking (Downloadable Here), possibly an A-10C Warthog as Well.

Bird-Dogs: Currently 2 choice: Dessault Mirage 2000N (downloadable Here), OV-10 Bronco (Downloadble Here), and the Dehavilland 300 Twin Otter (downloadable Here)

[Karl]

I'm interested. Helicopters for storm chasing? WTH?!? Are you from Oklahoma?

Seriously though, I think Active Sky actually does a more accurate job of depicting weather with enough detail when it comes to turbulent weather. If this group comes to fruition I would certainly add it to my holdings.

Otherwise it sounds great. Even better than the Crime night concept we discussed.

[Storm]

Color me very interested (natch). :eagerness: I concur with Karl in that Active Sky Next is the way to go for storm depiction, especially active hurricanes, though it does work best alongside REX textures.

[HawgDawg4life]

As far as choice of weather engine goes. I Choose Rex for the textures. Pinpoint accuracy of the storm isn't the main idea, its getting great pictures of our flights.....

[Storm]

Exactly so. But REX is in two parts:

• the textures (I agree these are the best);
• the weather engine (not the best).

You don't need the weather engine active in order to use the textures. You simply set the textures, then switch REX off.

Active Sky Next (ASN) does not provide the textures (unlike previous versions of Active Sky); it simply provides the best weather engine (much better than REX). You use whatever textures you want with ASN, either default or from something like REX.

Therefore the very best combination is:

• use REX Essentials + Overdrive textures to visualize the weather;
• use ASN to create the weather that the REX textures will visualize.

Unfortunately that's also the most expensive combination!

There is a 7-day free trial of ASN so you can see for yourself.

[HawgDawg4life]

Fair enough and information I am aware of, my thought was the expense of 2 payware weather engines.....

[Karl]

I can only speak for myself. I have REX+OD. I would like to have ASN I suppose for the purpose of chasing and seeing those monsters hurricanes when they occur. I haven't plunked down the $60 USD for the the last AS because I simply wouldn't use it too often. If I had a reason, such as this group if it takes off, I would.

Storm, thanks for once again echoing my thoughts with so much more eloquent conciseness that I can. Hawg, I absolutely understand your thoughts on two payware products and the value that the expense would represent. I suggest that we keep the idea open. Once the group is established we can all visit and decide what best suits the needs for everyone concerned.

I think the idea is a really good one Hawg. I'm excited at the thought of flying with my buds here at MSF with a purpose. I will certainly be encouraging others to jump in with both feet!

[sapperjoeyb]

I'm in for an over watch position, either the c-130 or p-3 I'm unsure yet.

[HawgDawg4life]

Sounds like we have 4 interested so far, and yeah, we will work out the details when we get the group together. I am not stuck in stone on anything here. Keep the fire burning, spread the word....

[Wingman]

Definitely interested. Many simulated flights of mine have been based on finding routes through and into the most severe weather at the time. In reality, I suppose that would count as practice for what not to do. :topsy_turvy:

This sounds like something that would make for a nice video, too, eh?

[ak416]

Does that mean you're back, Wingman? :very_drunk:

[HawgDawg4life]

Okay, so it sounds like we are starting to form a group. So far, and correct me if I am wrong the following members are interested:

Myself
Karl
Storm
SapperJoey
Wingman

As it sits, we have enough people to get a meeting together to decide how we want to do this.... Any other takers before we move to the next step?

And hell yeah on the video....

[Kalo]

I would be interested in joining some flights to try it out. You should set up a group on the website that way people can join whenever/see who is involved.

[Wingman]

I cannot comment on said implied return, as that would acknowledge the possibility of my ever having left in the first place, which is, invariably, an impossibility. :very_drunk:

So when do we get assigned positions on this storm chasing team? Is there any value to data collected while inverted -- whether lightning has a greater propensity to strike the underside of an aircraft, perhaps?